I am from California and my dad had grown up in Utah as a kid. He had always told me that he would take me deer hunting someday but never in California he told me that we would need to go to Utah because he knows that mountains and all the "Secret spots." But I was wondering how the heck do i get a Nonresidents hunting license in Utah for deer. Is it by county? or do they have there own district zones set up that they allow hunting in? any information that i could get on this would be helpful. I know nothing at all so any beginner advise would be helpful.

Then, apply for your tags, next year (January for nonresidents, I believe).
Between now and the application period, you'll have plenty of time to study the hunt unit maps, to pick the particular unit you want to hunt in.

Somewhere in the process, your father will probably realize that the 'good spots' and 'secret spots' and all gone, turned private, or not so secret any more. Utah has changed a lot, in regards to hunting units, land management, and game management, over even the last 5 years (let alone the last 10 to 20 years).

If you're going to hunt with a rifle, you'll also have time to prepare yourself for one of the biggest jokes in the hunting world. Utah's idiotically-designed "Any Legal Weapon" (rifle) deer seasons see approximately 470,000 people heading into the mountains ...at the same time. And, all of those people have to push like hell for their deer, because they only get 3 to 5 days (depending on the unit). The environmental impact is MASSIVE and terrible, and also results in game animals being harassed so badly that up to 5% die of exhaustion during the short hunting season, in some of the more popular units.

I'm not trying to tell you that you shouldn't hunt in Utah. I'm just trying to point out that it's one of the worst states, as far as game management and planning. Utah is more interested in profit, than proper management and enjoyable hunts.

Case in point.... I lived in Utah until April of this year. But, since 1998, I didn't hunt anything but Elk in Utah. If I wanted to hunt deer, I went elsewhere (Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon are all better choices - even if you have never been there).

__________________"Such is the strange way that man works -- first he virtually destroys a species and then does everything in his power to restore it."

I've lived in Utah for 31 years, and I think your biggest hurdle to hunting here will be the short seasons, and too many hunters. You're too far away to (realistically) come scout the areas your dad remembers as being good (and after opening morning, any scouting is worthless with the animals be pushed by hunters), and with the short season and massive population surge to the hills during hunting season, finding the game is sometimes impossible. The sheer number of people the head for the hills during that time is staggering.............and there is only so much accessible land to go around.

The last deer hunt I went on, my younger brother and I went the entire season without seeing a buck (with the exception if one spike the size of my dog hanging in a camp). There were so many hunters out, even hiking 6-8 miles onto the forest, we coukd see hunter orange on every ridge, in every clearing, and staking out every game trail we came accross. We did see one doe and two fawns. Even the game warden we ran into commented on the lack of hunter success............because with all the hunters that utilize the public lands, the deer head for places with no people pushing them around..............the private lands that are posted no trespassing and no hunting where they can sit out a few days relatively unmolested.

Utah doesn't manage the big game for what's best for the game, they manage to sell tags. The average success rate for a bull elk is at about 10% over the last few years, and for deer is about half that (according to Utahs department of wildlife resources last fall).

Like Frankenmauser, the only big game I hunt anymore in Utah is Elk. For all my other big game, I go to Wyoming, and will probably start hunting in Idaho now that my two hunting partners have moved up there.

You may have better luck and a better experience than I have in the past, but come prepared for camps every 100 feet along the roads, atvs illeagaly driving up to areas you just spent 3 hours hiking to, and traffic on roads so bad that sounds like your camped next to interstate.

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